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NewsBee 1.1 Available in the App Store

NewsBee version 1.1 is now available in the App Store! In addition to the new features listed below, I’ve also made substantial performance tweaks to NewsBee with respect to parsing feeds and just general loading of menus. Thanks to everyone who sent email and requested new features!

Please note that NewsBee is now free in the App Store. I want to thank everyone who purchased a copy. Future updates will also be free.

Multiple Sites in the Status Bar

NewsBee now supports adding multiple sites right to the status bar. This feature change makes it simple to keep your very favorite sites close to hand while still keeping true to NewsBee’s goal of up to date news without distraction.

Activating multiple sites is easy. Just select Preferences > General, select the site you want to add to the Status Bar and then click the “Add to Status Bar” button. When you close the Settings window, NewsBee will reload and display all of your changes.

To remove a site, just go through the same steps and click the “Remove from Status Bar” button.

Multiple Popup Sizes

By popular request, I’ve reworked the popup handler to allow for multiple sizes. I’ve also made a few performance improvements here too that should make loading popups even faster.

Changing popup settings is easy. Just select Preferences > General and then switch to the General tab. There is only one setting on this tab now and it’s for the popups. Move the slider to the size you want and then close the settings window. NewsBee will reload, applying all of your settings changes. The new popup size should be active at that point.

In addition to these major changes, I’ve also added a “Close this menu” option to each NewsBee menu. This option will close just that one site, leaving any others running. This is a convenience option to turn down the noise, as it does not permanently remove the site from the Status Bar. If you quit NewsBee and restart, the site in question will return. You need to go into settings to turn the site off if you want to remove it permanently.

NewsBee is a minimalist RSS reader that lives in your status bar and helps keep you clued into what’s happening without causing the usual distractions that plague most newsreaders (i.e. +1000 unread stories filling you with “RSS remorse”). More information about NewsBee can be found at http://www.jamiegrove.com/newsbee.